The Summons
by Korean Pearl
Summary: The war is coming to its climax, and more help is needed. Not just James and his crew, but others, others that told Maya to get them when she needed help fighting... her street kids.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the original Animorph characters. I do however, own, Maya, Oscar, and all the other Nadarlets.

This takes place in the valley, right after they all get in. So basically, book 49.5.

And for the new people, this will make no sense unless you read my other fics. I'm not putting in a summary like I normally do, at request of old reviewers. Here's a link for a shortened summary (without the spaces): www. fanfiction. net/ s/ 1994 587/ 5/

Just read the italicized part at the end of the chapter.

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THE SUMMONS  
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_I stared at him, not knowing what he was doing, not knowing what I was doing._

_His eyes stared straight into mine, and his words echoed in my skull._

Chapter 1:

My name is Maya.

Strange. So strange to say those words, to let them sink in, to know that I've been _Maya… _for how long?

Well, I've been on Earth for eight years, ever since I came here as an eight-year-old Elemaki.

I've been on Earth for exactly half my life.

And for some reason, that's just as strange to me. I look at Earth, at the humans, and I don't think _home_.

But when I think of the Andalite Home World, I don't think _home_ either.

I smiled, almost tauntingly. Yeah, I'm a homeless waif who doesn't know where to go.

Although I certainly know what to do.

I lifted my head, and glanced around quietly at the valley. Everyone was asleep, or they were supposed to be, anyway.

We hadn't been in the valley that long… but I liked it here. I knew that the others didn't, but there was something about the simplicity of the lifestyle that I enjoyed.

"Maya," a voice whispered, and I turned to see Oscar, his fair face leaning towards mine.

(What?) I thought at him, not wanting to make any more noise than possible.

"Go take a break," he said. "I'll keep guard."

I shook my head. (I'll be fine.)

He smiled at me, and then nudged me. "C'mon, you know that they don't give me anything to do because they don't see me as anything but a kid. They don't know that I'm a Nadar."

I looked at him, at his smiling eyes that almost hid the hardness behind them, and then nodded. (Okay. Tobias is up in the tree, you know how to make owl hoots to wake him up.)

I left Oscar standing at the edge of the valley, I placed the trust and the lives of all the sleeping mothers, fathers and children in his hands, and made my way quietly to the camp fire where embers were still glistening.

I seated myself on the not-quite-rotting log and took a stick and poked it into the fire, sending up tiny sparks. Moving my hands and feet to get the best position for warmth, I let my mind drift off to our most recent mission.

_I seethed at the backs of the three boys who were mocking the woman who was obviously blind. How _dare _they… how can Marco, Tobias and the others _want _to save scum like those boys…_

_This was too much._

_I jumped on one of them with a yell, pulling the boy's head backward as his dirty-blonde hair flew into my face._

_Wait… dirty-blonde hair…?_

_"Great job," Marco said, sarcastically. "I'm pretty sure that, ah, Bird-boy would appreciate you not strangling him. Although we probably should have known…"_

_"Sorry," I grunted, and released Tobias before walking out of the store. They'd better have a good explanation, but I'd trust them, for now…_

_----_

_"Mom," I told her. "We need to leave, soon. We need to go to the valley. The Yeerks know we're human."_

_Her eyes opened wide, and her hand flew to her mouth as she took a step backward and gave a strangled sob. "No," Mom whispered. "We have to leave, right now. I'll get Sam and Rosa."_

_She hurried up the steps, while I began packing, feverishly, fervently, for a trip that might never end…_

_----_

_Jake diving towards the pavement, he's going to kill himself, don't do it Jake don't do it…_

"Hey, Maya."

I smiled at the fire. "Hi, Jake."

I turned to look at him, and noted, as I always did, how he got older with each glance.

"What are you doing up so late?"

"I had watch duty, remember?"

"And now?"

I glanced at him. "Oscar took over. He was bored. Don't get angry."

"I… I wasn't planning on it."

I grinned mentally. Oh, Jake.

"Did you really think that I was going to get angry?"

His almost troubled tone caused me to look sharply at him, but then I looked away just as quickly.

I couldn't afford to give him any of myself, anymore.

"Did you?" he whispered.

If I say yes, it'll kill him. If I say no, I'll be lying.

Wonder what I'm going to choose.

"No, Jake," I told him with a smile, "I was teasing you."

He gave me a long, sharp, glare.

"You're lying."

I stared at the fire for a long time, and when I finally looked up, he was gone.

-------

I closed my eyes and let the wind wash over me in small waves, letting the rays of the sun glance off each part of my body. I still missed the cool wash of the night, but the early morning also held beauty not known to many.

"Maya, c'mon. Stop sleeping – we're having a meeting."

Marco's voice reached my ears and I turned to roll my eyes at him, not bothering to tell him that I wasn't sleeping.

We made our way to the fire, past the adults who were still in denial, past Hork Bajir who were tending to their young, past Oscar and Jordan who were having an animated conversation.

(Don't get too close to her,) I warned Oscar as we passed them, reminding him that he was a Nadar. Oscar nodded slightly in response, just enough for me but no one else to notice.

We flopped on the logs and waited for Jake to speak.

"Yeerks are sending out campers," he said. "To 'search us out,' or so we're assuming."

Marco sighed, a great, long, exaggerated sigh. "Great. Just, great. For the first time in our lives we don't have to go to school on _top _of saving the world, and now the Yeerks are sending people with marshmallows after us."

No one laughed, or even smiled, and I could see Marco deflate a little.

I picked up the conversation.

"Actually, Jake, I have something to add."

I waited until everyone was listening, and then said, "We're going to need more troops."

Everyone stiffened, and stared at me. (Are you forgetting what happened with David?) an Andalite voice questioned, and I shook my head.

"I know what happened with David, but these people I have in mind I can trust with my life. Like, literally, and you know I don't trust very many people with anything."

They were nodding slowly, and it was Toby who asked, "Who are these people?"

"My Nadar," I said simply. "We lived together on the street when I first came to America, and after Anna got raped and died, we burned her murderers alive. You don't go through that kind of thing without… changing a little."

I paused, and then added, "Oscar is one of them."

At the sound of his name being called Oscar looked up, and then got to his feet and came over.

"So, you want to fight?" asked Rachel, half teasingly, at this serious-faced Korean boy who she viewed as a kid, only as old as her little sister.

"No," he said calmly. "I want to kill."

"Oh, Oscar," Mom half-whispered, putting her head in her hands.

I looked out over the group, the "smaller" war council as I called it. Mom, Eva, who had spent the last few days hugging and talking to Rosa, Toby, the Animorphs… Sam was there, mostly because he couldn't be kept away, although he didn't talk.

"What about me?" Sam asked suddenly. Okay, so maybe I was wrong.

"If Oscar can fight, why can't I? I mean, you're all two years younger than me, and Oscar is in middle school."

I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to tell this eager boy that he knew nothing of war, when Mom exploded.

"You want to FIGHT?" she shouted, standing up. "You want to _kill_, is that it? Do you know _anything_ about death and fighting and killing?"

No one said anything.

"I gave up on these kids, you know that!" Mom shouted at her son, gesturing towards us. "And do you want to know why? Because THEY AREN'T KIDS!"

"Calm down, Mom," Oscar said, looking at the ground.

"See?" Mom said in a furious whisper to Sam, only to Sam. "The instant I saw them, the instant we took them into our car, I knew they weren't kids. They were much too cold, much too calm. You think I didn't try? You think your father didn't try to get them to open up? Well, in a way we succeeded – we opened them up. But it wasn't much use because there wasn't any child left inside them. There was only Nadar."

Only Nadar…

"Oh, Sam," Mom wept, changing emotions as quickly as a stone skipping across a smooth lake.

"Are they like you?" Jake asked me, completely ignoring Mom's breakdown as Sam led her away from the campfire.

I nodded. "They're Nadar. They'll fight. They're more obedient than me because I used to lead them. They'll obey you, though, when I tell them to."

(So what's the plan for these campers?) Tobias asked from somewhere above. I didn't look up.

"Pick them off, one by one," Marco said suddenly. "Like snipers."

"We can't," Cassie started, but when we all swung our heads up to glare at her, she went silent.

"This is war," Rachel said softly. "All is fair in love and war."

"That's not true," Cassie said, unable to resist. "There are rules. And one of them is you can't attack civilians."

"Civilian casualties happen," Marco reminded her. "And these aren't civilians. They're soldiers of the Yeerk Empire. The Yeerks are using human hostages to try and get us to not kill them."

"But since it doesn't seem to affect us…" I murmured, almost to myself.

_All is fair in love and war, you know._

So, so bizarre. Like humanity, itself. Who in the world would have, or even could have drawn the similarities between war… and love? Anything goes in war… well, there is the Geneva Convention. And does anything go in love… there are rules of what love is and isn't, so…

"How many do you have?" asked Jake.

I counted in my head. There was Sandy, Drew, little Anna, Lola, Rocky, Kat, Carlos, Lupita…

I almost gasped at the thought of them.

Memories rushed over me of these eight Nadar who had followed me faithfully to a life filled with hate, of these children, who had grown up without me…

"Eight," I whispered. "There are eight of them. Sandy is…"

I quickly figured out their ages in my head, and then reported them to Jake. "Sandy is eleven, Drew is fifteen, little Anna is seven – I don't know if she's a Nadar or not though, Lupita and Carlos are both eighteen, Lola is sixteen, Rocky is ten, and Kat is thirteen. And of course, Oscar, who is thirteen."

"And they can fight?" Jake asked.

I smiled my half-smile at him. "Prince Jake, they're Nadar. They can fight and kill."

"Ten's a little young, though, don't you think?" Cassie asked. "I mean, you said Rocky, I think his name was, was ten."

"I killed my first human when I was five," I offered, and then watched as…

Watched as her eyes _didn't_ widen in shock, watched as the other Animorphs simply heard, watched as Jake nodded slowly, ever so slowly as he said, "Okay."

"I'll summon them," my mouth said, my brain still observing everyone's lack of a reaction.

_What was going on?_

You know what's going on, Maya, a voice said harshly. They're becoming Nadar. Everyone's jumping on Cassie, so she can't stop them. They're all becoming Nadar.

Just like you.

**Review Responses**

Updating earlier than I normally do… I thank Christmas break and the reason for the season, but of course my midterm exams are screaming at me now. ::hides::

**Hey** – As Daddy says, I am not phoo. Or phou.

**Eyes of Forest** - ::cowers:: I'm sorry, really I am, but here's the next chapter, see! And yeah, it's in the valley, so it doesn't really continue where I left off, but I hope you like it!

**DH** - Hi! The link didn't show up, but I found it in your old reviews, anyway. And yeah, I'm done with a book again. ::wipes brow:: The next one is going to be semi-fun to write, and then The Princess will be tres fun! (Tres is very in French – I take Spanish, but all my friends except two take French, and they influence me. )

Yeah, I was trying to show Maya's "truer" side. I was actually rereading some of my older stuff the other day – she's changed a lot. And you're right! She still feels. The thing with her is that she tries to suppress everything, when only certain emotions should be. I know that doesn't fly with the whole "express everything" thing nowadays, but that's why people lose their tempers and kill each other… I think controlling anger is quite fine.

And yeah, the assassins thing. That's actually one reason why I made Maya into a murderer – to comment on the fact that they're always "good" somehow, which kind of annoys me.

Yes, Ax was the one who saved Maya… man, I'm going to have to take another poll to see who people want Maya paired with. Your influence is very great. And here's the next book!

**A-cat** – Did I? I'll have to watch that. What part seemed rushed – after the dolphins, or right before them? And yup, more Nadar acts for Maya. Maybe the Animorphs are having a good influence on her, but she's pretty determined to remain a Nadar. And yeah, sorry about the assassin thing – I generally thought of an assassin as anybody who targets somebody else for specific gain, which I learned from Ferago (sp?) the Assassin, one Brian Jacque's Redwall books, at a young and tender age, so the image stuck. I learned later the more conventional definition, but I can't seem to get the first one out of my head. And no, the Animoprhs don't know she killed the woman, because they would definitely freak. And oh! Sorry about the confusion. I know I posted those chapters a while ago, but anyway, I talked about an island back in chapter 3 or 4 that the Yeerks were building a base on. It was the same island that Marco and Maya jumped the cliff off of. Sorry, I probably should have made that more clear.

And the Animorphs and Rosa – hmm…. I can write something extra for you, if you like. I was intending to do that originally, but it was late and I didn't want to mess it up because that'll be a tricky scene to write, getting everyone's emotions and reactions right. I wrote a scene here to get that for you:

**Story Clip:**

We all trooped upstairs, all seven of us in a nice little line. Marco was last, and I slipped in behind him.

"Nervous?" I asked, too loudly. He glared at me, opening his mouth to say something but shutting it as we walked into Mom's room.

Rosa was sitting in Mom's lap, crying and hugging her, while Mom ran her fingers through the girl's hair, whispering to her. They both looked up when the seven of us came in.

"So you're the Andalite bandits?" a bitter voice said. I stared at this girl who looked ever so much like Marco, but who seemed nothing like him.

Marco was staring.

"You look like… Mom," he whispered. Rosa's head jerked up.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Marco. Your… brother."

"You fight the Yeerks?" she questioned, and then nodded grimly when he said yes.

"I'm… thank you… but I don't want to fight, I don't want anything to do with _them_…"

She turned as the tears came to her eyes again, and I wondered, for fifteen years she's been a slave, how did she survive?

Then Marco surprised us all by reaching out and tracing his finger down Rosa's cheek.

"Don't cry," he offered. "You don't have to fight. Mom's still… with them, but you can stay with Mrs. Lancing…"

With a quick glance up he confirmed this with Mom, as she said, "Jenny knows how to set up a hologram for her which will effectively give her a new body covering. Jenny said she can give Rosa a bracelet that the hologram will come from, so she can't take off the bracelet ever, but other than that she'll have a normal life, here, with our family."

A normal life…

I gave one long look at Marco, who was kneeling next to the bed, talking to his sister.

_I wish you the best, Rosa. Maybe staying out of this war will be the best for you._

I didn't fool myself. I knew that staying out of this war would have been the best for all of us.

But sometimes humans, sentients do crazy stupid things that aren't in their best interests…

And that's what makes us human. That's what makes us sentient.

**I hope you liked this, A-cat – another Christmas present for you, and Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukah/Enjoy whatever holiday (or lack of a holiday to remain politically correct in a very politically correct world) to all of you!**


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own CVS.

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_I began demorphing – no, morphing – to Elemaki, my tail splitting out behind me, full and beautiful._

_That's how it always starts. With a change._

Chapter 2:

"We also have another problem – but a minor one," Jake said. "A bout of dysentery is going around, and we need medicine."

"Dysentery comes from drinking bad water…" I mused. "Where is our water source?"

"The lake," someone grunted.

I grimaced. "Someone's going to need to purify it before we drink it."

"Right now we're virtually cut off from the Chee. We can't contact them in any way, mostly because any service we use is liable to getting hacked. Also, we need the medicine pretty soon."

"So one of us has to go out and get it?" Rachel asked Jake, her shining blonde hair tossed over her shoulder.

Jake nodded slowly. "Yeah, that looks like the only thing we can do right now."

"That's risky, though," Marco said. "Really, really risky."

(How deadly is this strain of dysentery?) Aximili asked.

"It can get pretty bad," I said. "Deadly."

"Who has it?" Cassie asked.

"Sara."

"I'm going," Rachel said, without hesitation. Tobias lifted his hawk head. (I'll go, too.)

"And me," I said, almost immediately. "And we can avoid extreme stupidity by not going to the city we all know and love, but going to another city."

Jake rubbed the back of his neck, thinking. "Could you go to the city that your Nadar are at?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but it might take the whole day. We'll have to take the morphing cube."

Everyone stiffened. I knew how they felt… our only weapon, but we needed to…

"It's an hour's flight to where they are," Oscar said, suddenly. "I've calculated it before. Rachel in her eagle form can take the blue box, but we can secure it to her talons to make sure she doesn't lose it. If Maya goes she can keep track of the time, and Tobias can get them there the fastest way."

I suppressed a grin. _Oh, Oscar, you know your stuff, don't you? How many times have you studied us, watched our fights and looked to the sky, wishing you could join us?_

The others stared.

"Um, and _that's _not scary," Marco said, half-sarcastically, half-sincerely.

(Prince Jake,) Aximili said. (I do not… suggest this course of action. I do not believe it be entirely… wise.)

"Why not?" Jake asked quietly. "We have only seven. And we're not all killers – we need killers."

I could see the others glance at me, but I ignored them. Yes, I was a killer. Not proud of it, but it was a fact.

"Let's go, now," Oscar said, without any trace of impatience.

"Wait – let us? Us? You're coming too?" asked Rachel, her head tilted back in curiosity.

"Yes. That way, you can get the medicine while I take the kids back home," he explained. "We'll spend less time away from the valley."

"Well, are we just going to sit here until everyone has finished staring?" Eva asked briskly. "If everything is decided, let's go."

Toby also raised herself. "Yes, you should leave now, if that is the plan."

I stood up. "Let's get ready, then. I have a bag for the morphing cube for Rach."

I left the council and softly walked towards the tents where Mom had led Sam.

"Mom?" I called out. "Are you here?"

Two arms reached out and embraced me.

"Oh, Maya," she whispered softly.

I let her hold me, hold me as we both tried to take the aching away.

"Look at you," she whispered. "Sixteen years old. When I was sixteen…"

"You chose, didn't you?" I asked, also in a whisper. "You chose not to kill your parents. You chose not to become a Nadar."

"Issip showed me," she said, and then paused before continuing with, "I thought I couldn't love you, because you had to go out and fight."

"I know," I answered. "I thought I couldn't love anybody." _I still think I can't._

"I guess the question is," she said, almost lightly, "Is it worth it?"

"That's always the question, isn't it?" I responded. _Is it worth not loving to win this war?_

We held each other before I backed out of her arms. "I have to go now."

Mom nodded, and released me.

-------

We flew through wind and fog and smog, a few hundred feet from each other. I was struggling against the wind - my abnormally small merlin morph always had trouble keeping up with the rest of the group, especially with Rachel's huge eagle morph.

(Almost there,) I rasped out, and Tobias' voice rang in my head. (Take it easy, Maya.)

I sent him a mental nod, and then continued to push myself.

He swept in front of me, and said simply, (Follow me, I'll show you.)

He led me above thermals where I could relax my wings and simply soar above the city, soar above the sites…

(Hey, Oscar,) I called to him, but including Tobias and Rachel in the thought-speech. (Look down. This is where we burned all those guys alive after they raped and killed Anna.)

(Yeah, you're right,) Oscar said in his serious way. (And in approximately, now, we are approaching the scoop.)

(Scoop?) Rachel asked, her thought-voice faint as we began to descend.

(Yeah,) I answered. (We called it that.)

We landed softly amid the children, and began to demorph as they stared at us.

My form grew out of my small merlin body and I, too, stared at my children.

Except there weren't any children.

A beautiful eighteen-year-old Hispanic woman whispered, "Maya? Is it really you?"

"Lupita," I whispered back. She was so young when I had left…

Two dark arms embraced me, and I hugged Lola back, a girl who had grown into a sixteen-year-old teen.

"Oh, Maya," she whispered, as Sandy, Drew, Lupita, Carlos, Kat, even ten-year-old Rocky came to me, as we embraced after so many years.

Little Anna stood behind, shyly looking up. I came towards her and asked, "Do you remember me?"

She nodded, and I hugged her as well, and then turned to Gilbert and Anne, who were exuberant five-year-olds.

I turned towards Rachel and Tobias – Oscar was already mingling with the Nadar.

"These are my kids," I told them. "Oscar can take them to the valley now. Let's go get the medicine."

-------

Tobias, Rachel and I walked out of CVS as inconspicuously as we could, each of us carrying as many supplies as we could.

(Why couldn't the Chee get this for us again?) Tobias asked, his eyes shifting around. Tobias was in his human morph, while Rachel was in one of my Nadar's morph, as was I.

(If you were having dysentery, would you want to wait until we could contact somebody to get medicine for it? The Chee can't exactly drop everything and come to our rescue whenever we snap our fingers,) Rachel answered.

(But it is kind of risky,) Tobias said. (I mean, we are the only hope that Earth has left and it's actually pretty stupid of us to be walking out like this.)

(No,) I reminded. (We have my Nadar, now.)

Silence reigned for a moment, and then we turned a corner to run into somebody.

The somebody swore as we stepped back, and then I heard a curse come from Tobias' lips.

I looked at the man, and then back at Tobias. Man, Tobias. Man, Tobias.

Both were wide-eyed in shock.

"Who are you?" I asked bluntly.

"Tobias?" the man asked his eyes searching. "I thought you were gone…"

Tobias was trembling slightly, his eyes also searching; except he was searching for a way out.

The man spoke, but only to Tobias. "I got kicked out… without you they didn't give me no tax benefits."

Tobias stepped backwards and turned to go, but the man shot out an arm and closed his hand on Tobias' wrist.

"Where are you going, boy?" he said quietly, and I saw a look on his face that I didn't like.

Tobias surprised us all by turning back around and growling, "Let me go."

"Wait a sec," Rachel said. "You two know each other?"

Tobias looked at the ground. "Yeah," he whispered. "He's my uncle."

Rachel looked startled for a moment, and then muttered something under her breath before saying simply, "Let him go."

Tobias' uncle snorted, and then said, "He's _my_ nephew. Who are _you_ to order me? One of his girlfriends – oh, wait, I forgot, he's too much of a loser to ever get a girlfriend."

I saw Tobias flush, and then I turned to his uncle almost in consternation. How old was this guy? Twelve? He was acting like a middle-school brat.

It always annoyed me when adults acted like children.

(Don't say anything,) I warned Rachel as she took a deep breath, probably ready to launch herself at the man. (I'll handle this.)

But before I could do anything, the man had yanked Tobias closer to him and swung his arm around to slap him full in the face.

Tobias's face turned towards me, but his wrist was still held by his uncle so he couldn't move. I watched, almost in shock, as his uncle began screaming at Tobias for – for what? I couldn't hear. All sound was killed by the sight of Tobias' face, his smarting cheek, his single tear, and his eyes full of shame.

"You son of a ------- " I heard from Rachel, and my mind followed the same track as it always did whenever someone said that. Was Tobias' grandmother really that bad? That particular curse always seemed unfair to me.

Not now, my mind whispered. Now is Tobias.

I stepped forward as Tobias' uncle laughingly held Rachel off at bay with his other beefy hand, and then jabbed with my index finger's knuckle right into the nerve on the wrist that was holding Tobias. I knew from experience that Tobias' uncle's hand would grow numb, and he would instantly drop whatever he was holding.

Sure enough, he dropped Tobias' wrist and I threw my bags at Tobias, saying, (You go first.)

I had to deal with this guy.

(Rachel, go!) I shouted in my mind as Rachel kicked Tobias' uncle between his legs. I watched as he bent over in pain, and then I pulled out my knife that I had been quietly morphing out of my hand.

You are so dead, mister.

I reached up to quickly slit his throat when I felt a hand on my arm, stopping me.

I turned around to face Tobias.

"Killing him won't help," he said, his cheek still red.

I stared.

"What do you mean, it won't help?" I whispered. "What do you mean?"

"He's only hit me a few times," Tobias explained, his eyes looking over my shoulder at his uncle. "Besides… he's my mother's brother."

"And so what?"

His eyes finally stopped wandering and met mine. "Don't kill him," he begged. "It's murder. It's wrong. I'm not going to be like him. I made that decision a while ago – I want to be the opposite of him. I don't ever want to fall into his cycle of violence without a cause. If I let you kill him, I'll be copying him, because I'll be hurting him just because I want him to hurt, like he hurt me."

I let my knife hand fall, and then turned around to face Tobias' uncle who had straightened up by then.

"I'm not killing you because of Tobias," I told him distinctly. "If he hadn't stopped me, I would have."

We turned and left him there, left a man eaten up by the desire to hurt standing there in the alley, left him alive because the nephew he had abused had told me that he didn't want to hurt others just for the sake of hurting them.

And inside, I was weeping, because I knew that I was more like Tobias' uncle than like Tobias, that I too, hurt others just to cause them pain.

And the only reason I might have been different from that man was because I had been treated with kindness, and still I spewed hate.

**Review Responses**

::sighs:: I wanted to put that scene in - about them running into Tobias' uncle - for a while... I wrote that scene a while ago, but I never found a place to put it until now.

**FOL - **::munches away:: But you didn't review the last chapter of The Healing! ::weeps:: And you'll come back in Mayanites: Nadar and Kyan, I believe. That's not for a while yet, so stick around!

**So-heun – **The 1st chapter of The Summons has a clip about Rosa that should help. I'm glad you liked the chapter though, and thanks for the review!

**Eyes of Forest – **Glad you liked it! Here's the next chapter – I'm beginning to like writing this fic, at least.

**DH **– Your very nice and long reviews make me _so_ happy. ::hugs:: And yeah, I like the part when there in the war camp, the best, too. Something about the desperation that they all begin to feel… my favorite book is the last one, though. It's so sharply, almost painfully sweet.And thanks! I like the characters better in the valley, in the first place. Yeah, they are becoming Nadar, something I noticed when I was first generating the idea of Nadar. Jake's actions… Rachel's actions… the whole blowing up the Yeerk pool… Jake is getting colder… his losing his parents on top of his brother's affected him a lot as in shown in book 50, I think, where he decides to quit. Maya… I think she's taking it into stride, mostly b/c loss is something she's used to. She's lost her parents, after all, and most everybody she's known. And Maya's kids – yup, that's Maya for you. Didn't really think about her kids all that much. They showed up in this chapter, and they aren't mad, mostly because they're kind of like Maya in the sense that Nadar are pretty fatalistic. I mean, with their whole "life to fight, fight to die" thing, they kind of have to be.And Sam, yes. I'm going to have more on Sam, and the valley in general, but not through Maya. I'm writing a book of Oscar's life, then Little Anna's life, and both will explore the valley more.The Auxiliary Animorphs show up in the next book – one of the reasons I put in Maya's Nadar now is because I kind of thought it was a little naive to assume that the Visser believed Jake when he said that there were always more Animoprhs when the auxiliaries come pouring out.The whole Maya with whoever thing will come up… Marco and Maya are fine with each other now, and Maya/Ax will come up later. We've got a long way to go… and glad you liked the Rosa scene!

**Rachel9466 – **Thanks! So glad you liked. I enjoyed writing that chapter, too, actually. And yeah, I probably should use Nadarlets… it just kind of popped out of me then – I didn't think of it before.Last chapter of Healing… I wrote a clip about Rosa at the end of the Summons, did that help?grins at big English words It's so much more fun when it's not in class. Have a nice nap!

**Alex or, ****KMaDnNeSs64 - **::blinks:: You have a fanfic login? I'll have to check out your fics – and I did! ::grins:: And thanks, glad you like. You've read Animorphs, before, I'm assuming, right? And btw, have you read some of my other fics? This one won't make much sense otherwise, because I'm not putting a summary in, so just to make sure. Anyway, really glad you showed up – thanks for the review!

**A-cat – **You're welcome! Glad you liked. And thanks so much for your long review! ::hugs:: And it's okay, I figured you were on vacation – a lot of people still are, I was just sick so couldn't go anywhere. And yeah, Maya does tackle Tobias. ::looks sheepish:: I know it was a bit out of character for Maya to care, but I always got surprised/annoyed at the way the boys acted, even if it was just acting. I was mostly surprised at the way Tobias suddenly turned into "tough guy."Yeah, the Animorphs are getting more hardened. They obviously don't turn into Nadar – I don't want to deviate from the book's original plot _that _much, but right now I'm putting them at the stage where they can go either way – their choice. And true, like you pointed it out, they don't enjoy it, which is their choice. And the street kids! Here they are. And oh, no, DH's character doesn't show up till Nadar Chronicles 3 (which is the book after this one) and has a major role in Mayanites: Nadar and Kyan (yes, I have it all in my head). And it's fine that you read them – I read reviews and comment responses all the time. She actually isn't a Nadar though – did I say that somewhere? ::searches memory:: As for leading the kids, they aren't out on specific projects like they were with Maya – mostly concentrating on surviving. I'd say Lupita and Carlos, since they're the oldest. And your character! ::grins:: She roles majorly in Nadar Chronicles 3 and some in Mayanites: Nadar and Kyan, as well. I hope you like her – all these characters are going to be fun to write.

**Beekiller****-Johanna from Finland** – Yay! New reviewer! And thanks! I'm glad you liked that chapter – hope you like this one! (BTW, I love your penname. )

**H-F-N – **Sorry! I don't know why I keep missing answering you. ::hides in shame:: But I'm answering you here! Glad you liked the last chapter! And I'm actually a junior – I _wish _I was a senior. ::sighs:: Almost out of high school… anyway, hope you like this chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

_-(__I did not trust you,)- he told me, and then he corrected himself. -(I did not _want _to trust you. For that, I ask for your forgiveness.)-_

_I began to tremble all over. Was this really happening?_

Chapter 3:

Rachel, Tobias and I did a quick demorph and remorph before taking an hour long bus ride back to the city. We had already given my Nadarlets, as Rachel called them, morphing powers, and Oscar was taking them back to the valley.

Once we arrived, we hiked through the woods and fumed at brush and thorns, finally sneaking into the valley by way of the "back door," or a bunch of thorns that blocked entrance into the valley except by patience, persistence, or a really big bulldozer.

That is, assuming the back door could be found in the first place. Even Tobias had trouble finding it, but in the end, we all made out okay.

We crept into the valley, expecting to be accosted by scary-looking Hork-Bajir warriors, but no one approached us. Puzzled, we pushed further into the valley only to discover that these same Hork-Bajir warriors were lying on the ground, moaning.

"What happened?" I asked the air, as Tobias demorphed to hawk.

"Maya, Rachel, Tobias!" Marco called. "Great timing. Apparently this strain of dysentery affected the Hork-Bajir rather… violently."

"Do you have the medicine?" Cassie demanded, her sleeves rolled up as she bent over a prone alien. Rachel and I nodded, before handing off our several shopping bags to her. She rummaged through, and then chose a bottle and administered it to a Hork-Bajir.

"Um… anything we can do to help?" Rachel asked.

"Yes," Cassie's dad responded, appearing out from behind a tent. "Go take over what the Hork-Bajir are supposed to do. We'll take care of the rest."

I nodded, and then hurried forwards to where Jake and Marco were arguing about something.

"Okay, good, you came just in time," Jake said as we approached. "Your Nadar are all here -"

"Nadarlets," Rachel corrected.

Jake gave her a glance. "They're all here, and I need you to tell them that just because I'm not a Nadar doesn't mean I'm incompetent."

I flashed a grin at him. "Okay. Kids?"

They gathered close to me, and looked at me expectantly. I noticed Anne and Gilbert among them, and asked Carlos, "Are they Nadar?"

He shook his head. "No."

"What happened to the rest of the kids?"

He started to speak in English, and then broke into a stream of Spanish, explaining how they had adopted away the rest of the children who weren't Nadar, and kept Gilbert and Anne because those two knew no other life than the street.

"Hey, I actually understood that," Marco joked. I rolled my eyes.

"Okay. So, everybody, this is Jake. You are to obey him now, like you would me. The details are that we are fighting a war against the Yeerks, which you know about. Right now, since the Hork-Bajir are currently unable to assist us, you will be taking over their jobs as look-outs."

Everyone nodded, and so I shooed them off, and then turned to Jake. "I need to get Gilbert and Anne some parents."

He shrugged. "Go ahead. That's not my problem."

"Thanks, Jake," I said, ever-so-slightly sarcastically. He glanced at me, and then left.

I stared after him for a few moments, feeling for the change in him. I glanced at Marco, whose grin as he talked to his mother was obvious even from here. Pushing away the pangs of jealousy, I evaluated my situation, stepped out of my place and observed.

Yes… I was happy here. I could fight. I had my Nadarlets. I always had Mom.

But what to do after the war?

My mind blanked on that one, and I tried to imagine what I would do once the war was over.

Well, assuming that we won it in the first place.

_Go out. Get away from Earth. Build your army. Destroy the Andalites, remember? You have your Nadarlets; you can get more as you travel from planet to planet. Then back to North Korea. You could rule all of Earth if you wanted to._

_But first, destroy the Andalites._

The secret plans of my heart, the plans I had vowed since I had learned that the Andalites had abandoned me, leapt forward in a surge of hot anger.

-(Maya… are you alright?)-

Tobias. Tobias was the son of an Andalite. And Ax, too. He was an Andalite.

_When does it end? You kill theirs, and they kill yours. You kill them, and they kill you. When does it all end?_

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, brushing it all away. I turned towards Gilbert and Anne.

Gilbert looked up at me, his straight brown hair parted in the middle. A child, nothing more. I held out my hand, and said, "Come."

He obediently trotted forward, and I picked him up, and then held out my other hand to Anne. She also came forward, and with the two of them I made my way across the camp to where Mom and Loren were.

"Mom…"

She looked up. "Oh, you're back! Glad you made it safely. And who are…"

"Gilbert," I interrupted. "And Anne."

Her face broke into a smile. "Except Anne seems to have dirty-blonde hair over the famous red tresses."

I shrugged, and then handed Gilbert over to her. "Can you be his mother?"

She nodded, and then began speaking to the boy, the boy who I hoped could escape this war, the boy who I was glad had escaped the fate of a Nadar.

I then turned to Loren, and tried to bring Anne out from behind me, but she was too shy. I tickled her, and then giggling, she came forth.

"Loren…"

Tobias' mother's blue eyes were shining as she reached out. "Another chance for me, hmm?"

"Yeah," I said. Loren smoothed down the wisps of Anne's hair, and then picked the girl up.

Satisfied, I turned and left, when Tobias' thought-voice rang in my head.

-(She's Anne's mother now, huh?)-

His tone was wistful, and as I heard it I was reminded of Oscar's voice, back on the pearl fisher's boat, Oscar who told me he had no name.

-(I don't have a mother, either.)- I told him.

-(Helen isn't your mother? I would kill for a mom like her.)-

_She isn't my Mamai, _I said silently. _No matter how much she loves me, I won't let her turn me into a child again. I'm a Nadar. And Nadar don't have mothers._

-(I'm a Nadar, Tobias,)- I said, repeating my thoughts. -(And Nadar don't have mothers.)-

There was a pause before Tobias answered. -(Glad I'm not a Nadar, then.)-

_You should be, _I told him, before grabbing Oscar and Kat, the two who could sneak around the best, and telling them to get dracon beams from our store. Neither of them asked why, and I was grimly satisfied.

-(What are you doing?)- Tobias asked, annoying me again, and so I told him briefly, -(We're going hunting.)-

"Jake," I called. He turned.

"We're going to go out and "snipe" some. Me, Oscar, and Kat."

"Can I come?" Rachel asked, although it sounded more like a demand than a request. Jake looked at her, and then shook his head. "Sorry, you're more of the big explosion type than the spy type."

Rachel began arguing with Jake, and I noticed how his shorter and brusquer responses sounded more like, "Just shut up and obey me" over the coaxing and entreating he had done earlier in the war.

This war had better hurry up and finish before he snapped. Before we all snapped.

"Come on," I called, turning away. Jake and Rachel could deal with it themselves.

-----------

-(Ready. Aim. Fire.)-

A searing lance shot through a mother of a family as she bent over a child. She fell over gasping, her bottom half disintegrating, and the father pulled out a dracon beam.

-(Definitely Yeerks,)- I said, almost to myself, and the proceeded to finish off the rest of the family.

-(Next family is over a few trees,)- Kat said from the air. I thanked her, and Oscar and I swiftly sneaked to the edge of the meadow, and climbed a tree where we could shoot from.

My leather moccasins made no noise as they dug into the tree's bark, and they also allowed my feet enough flexibility to move the way I wanted them to. I had gloves on, as well – no need to leave unnecessary prints everywhere – and so I was able to cling to rough bark for much longer than I would have been able to with hands of bare flesh.

"Only two," Oscar whispered to me, and I nodded, carefully lining up my dracon beam at the heart of one of the campers. Boyfriend and girlfriend, it looked like.

Oscar was beside me, and we both fired at the same time, shooting them into nonexistence before swinging down to the camp to see what they had.

-(No plans, no nothing but a portable Kadrona,)- I said to Kat after searching. -(We're going to burn it all.)-

And so we did.

As Oscar and I continued, expanding our circle of death, we fell into rhythm with each other, an easy pattern that I had missed before. He shot, I held back, he scouted, I killed. It was like breathing, in and out, in and out, two arms on one body, or even closer, two fingers on one hand.

We were deadly.

There was something exhilarating about our stalking, our careful hunting down of the living… the elimination of breathing creatures whose deaths we explained away. After all, we were Nadar.

-(Another family,)- Kat said. -(Up there, in the clearing.)-

So many families. Didn't the Yeerks think it would be a little suspicious if a quarter of the city decided to go camping in the same week? Or maybe now that they were getting stronger, they could afford to be viewed with suspicion. After all, I doubted that they were going to be using The Sharing as a recruiting center any longer.

The Sharing. What a stupid name, I thought briefly. It's so inconcise, and it's lame, on top of it. What do you share? And how? And what for? They should have given a little more information in their title, honestly.

Then again, it was doubtful that many people would have joined if their title _had _been: "The Sharing of Yeerks to humans by way of infestation in order to take over the world, and eventually the universe."

We reached the clearing, and ever so cautiously crept up behind the tent. A loud family was there, and we could hear a baby wailing as we got closer.

-(Around the tree, then you'll get a perfect shot,)- Kat told us, and we trusted her, and went around the tree to find that a few well placed shots would get rid of the entire family.

-(Ready. Aim. Fire,)- I told Oscar, and we fired.

Pandemonium ensued, and we continued firing. A beam caught a baby straight in her head, and her wail was cut off.

Deadly, accurate beams lanced out, over and over again, as people screamed, as people died, as people tried to escape, as people failed to survive.

We killed them all.

The sun had begun to set by then, and so we headed home, both Oscar and I morphing to bird.

-(Don't tell the others,)- I warned them. -(They can't know what we did. They don't know what being a Nadar is like, and I've been able to hide my nastier side from them, so this'll shock them too much.)-

-(But didn't Jake _ask_ you to get us?)- Kat asked me.

-(He didn't know what he was asking for,)- Oscar responded, and with a grim laugh, we pushed forward, leaving empty meadows perfectly devoid of families behind us.

**Review Responses**

Not one of my best chapters. Sorry about that. But I'm updating sooner, so hope that makes up for it. Three day weekend, my midterms finished Friday, think I killed Chem, but I can make up for it – I've got another half year left. ::groans::

**A-cat – **I read about dysentery in some random book that's on my desk, and decided to use it since it's a realistic sounding disease, and also I was dying for a way to have a plausible reason for the Animorphs (at least Tobias, Rach, and Maya) to get away from the valley to run into Tobias' uncle. And thanks for the idea about the Hork-Bajir! I was intending for it to be a human disease only, but your comment really helped me expand on the plot a _lot._ Thanks!

And purification – that's pretty simple, crude purifying devices can be used, filtration, and if they feel like it, Ax and Maya can always build something that's a little fancier that basically just filtrates. Then they have to boil it.

Oh, sorry, Oscar didn't have the morphing power, but I kind of gave it to him in one of the -------. I didn't really talk about it though. ::hides:: I probably should have been more clear on that point. And yeah, the Nadarlets. I had Maya not explain anything on purpose, because I'm playing with the theme that the Nadarlets trust Maya absolutely and obey her. I gave them the morphing power, too, in another ------ and yeah, I should have explained that better too.

Oh yeah, the whole Tobias and uncle thing is a theme I'm going to bring up in later chapters. The idea of forgiveness, and not blind revenge that eats you up… there's this later fic that I'm writing (Mayanites: Nadar and Kyan) where that's a central theme – forgiveness vs. revenge.

And sorry! ::hides:: School is a killer. Once summer comes I'll update much more often, hopefully. And oh yeah… I remember that. ::blushes:: Sorry, I did change my mind and yet I forgot to tell people. Sorry. ; Leonora (her name) is a kid in Nadar 3, but in Mayanites: Nadar and Kyan, she has a _huge _part. And your character, Alexa, is prominent in both, but is more so in Nadar 3.

And here's the update!

**Kaz456 – **Glad to see you again! And glad you like how the fics are going. ::grins:: And yes, the last scene. Like I told A-cat, I'm playing with that theme quite a bit. I actually haven't read the book where Tobias stops Rach from killing Taylor, but yeah, that kind of idea. Your question is a good one – and it takes a lot of thinking to do. Hopefully I'll be able to show both cases in my fics… I've thought about it for a while, and it's pretty tricky. But anyway, thanks for your review!

**DH – **Glad you liked that scene. I'm getting the feeling that a lot of people did, so yay! And yeah, Maya is twisting around. She's trying to reconcile the fact that she's a Nadar to the fact that she does love, and it's not working, which she'll figure out. Eventually. ::grins evilly:: The whole "can you retire from being a Nadar" is a theme I'll work with in Mayanites: Nadar and Kyan.

Oh, yeah, Oscar. I'm going to write a book about his life, too. Some reason I like writing about Maya from other people's points of view.

And yeah, the Nadarlets and Maya are all in a kind of "Yes, we're family – but we're Nadar." stage. I explained a bit about what happened in the street while Maya was gone in this chapter – adopted all the non-Nadar off but Gilbert and Anne. So, yes, basically everyone who was with Maya when they burned the men alive are now Nadar.

And glad you liked the dysentery thing. Here's the update!

**Toby – **Hi! Glad to see you're back. And Venezuela! How was that like? And sorry about being grounded. My parents generally don't do that, instead, we have hour long "family meetings."

And yeah, I feel like my writing style has changed somehow, too, but I don't know exactly what I did to change it, or what happened to make me change it. Do you like it better? Or is it just different? And anyway, thanks for the review, and here's the next chapter!

**AniDragon**** – **You caught up! I've been waiting for you to catch up. ::grins:: And yeah, Tobias is my favorite, too. And yes, that was the last chapter, but here's a new one! And also, if you need something to entertain you when you're bored, I earnestly recommend L. Emmist's fics. They are amazing – K.A. in disguise. If you go to my fanfic profile page, and click on my C2 communities, his fics are there. And here's the next chapter!

**Chaos Pirate – **Hi! Glad you liked all the Maya ones, and glad you caught up! ::smiles:: I'm getting the feeling that a lot of people liked the scene between Tobias and his uncle, which is good, because I liked it, too. I am actually going to do a lot more with Tobias and his family… just not yet. And yeah, Maya has issues. She'll probably always have issues, unless I die or something and then I won't be able to write about always. ::grins:: But don't worry, here's the next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

_He swung his tail up in a graceful arc, and I brought mine up, less gracefully, to meet his. Our blades clanged softly together, and for a moment we strained, looking each other in the eye, not letting our stalk eyes wander._

_His expression was something I had never seen before on the face of an Andalite._

Chapter 4:

"Hey, Maya," Rachel said as I walked past her. I nodded, and she pointed a finger at me.

"Your Nadarlets are _good. _Like, _real _good. They jumped on Marco and disabled him in two seconds flat when he tried to sneak up behind them."

I snorted. "You'd think he'd learn, after me."

She laughed, shaking her hair. "Yeah, go figure. So… how was the hunting?"

"Excellent."

"That's disgusting," I heard a voice say, and recognized it as Cassie's. Okay, so maybe it wasn't the _best_ joke to make, but what else was I supposed to say?

"You think it's _funny_ to joke about killing other sentients?"

"I think it's good to not die from the pressure of this war," I told her coldly. "And sometimes joking about things, like that… helps."

This time _she_ snorted. "I know you, Maya. You don't need any help withstanding pressure."

_No, you don't know me, Cassie._

"So, how many babies did you kill?" she asked me, the bitterness in her voice threatening to drown me.

I used Nadarcontrol to keep from turning in surprise, and answered with a normal voice. I wasn't going to let this girl get the better of me. "About two or three."

Rachel looked at me for a moment, and then shrugged. "It's war."

I waited for Cassie to blow up, or to reprimand us, or _something…_

"Did you really have to bring them here?" she whispered to me. "Did you really have to bring in more murderers?"

"We need to win this war," I told her.

"Is it worth it?" Cassie asked me. "Is it worth becoming killers to win this war? Is it worth murdering children to win this war?"

"Depends on your goals, doesn't it?" I asked, still keeping my voice normal. "Why are we fighting this war?"

I could sense her smile, a grim crooked smile. "I'm fighting for Earth. So humans… can be free."

"I'm not," I told her bluntly. "I'm fighting to keep a vow. I'm fighting because I need the fight – because I'm a Nadar. I couldn't care less about whether humans are free are not. Besides, humanity will find a way to enslave itself to something else."

"I know," Cassie said, surprising me by agreeing with me. "But I also know that right now, it's my task to fight. Even if I don't want to. Because if I say that there's no point, that humans are going to be enslaved to something else, be it fear, lust, hate, anything… that's just an excuse to not fight. To not save them from enslavement by the Yeerks."

"Careful of your words, Cassie," I said. "The American colonists claimed that the British were trying to enslave them over _taxes._ People claim to be enslaved all the time. Why don't you think of the Yeerks?"

"Ok, Maya, that's enough," Rachel said, breaking in. "I agree with you, we do have to do things that we normally wouldn't do, but you don't have to be ugly about it."

I glanced at her for a moment. Ugly about it? I was being ugly?

-(Hey, guys? Jake says it's time for our meeting,)- Tobias said from the air. The three of us stood still, staring at each other, staring at what we had become.

Cassie, Rachel, Maya. Three girls caught in a war. Three girls who ripped flesh off of living, breathing, bleeding sentients. Two humans, one former half-Elemaki. One black, one white, one half-Asian. Three girls who needed each other, three girls who didn't know what to do with their boiling feelings of resentment towards the fact that they were now living a life that they hadn't chosen, even if they _would_ have chosen it had they been given the choice.

-(We're girls, not guys,)- I told Tobias as we trudged towards the campfire.

I took a stick as I usually did and poked it at the fire as Jake started to talk.

"So, Maya, what did you get done?"

"Cleared out a lot of campers," I told him, looking up to stare at him straight in his eyes. I needed to see his reaction. "Mostly families."

I saw Eva wince slightly, but continued anyway.

"We didn't find any plans, and we used our dracon beams to clear any evidence that anyone had been there. We can do another sweep tomorrow."

"Where did you go?" asked Marco.

"We skipped all over, not keeping to a radius so the Yeerks can't pinpoint us." I saw Toby nodding in agreement with our plan of action.

"Who did you get?" Eva asked suddenly. I looked at her.

"Families… campers, uh, you know…"

Why was I suddenly tongue-tied?

"Were they all Controllers?"

I started to answer, and then stopped, my mind reeling backwards. Every group had some proof of Yeerks… portable Kadronas, dracon beams…

But that last family…

The baby's wail filled my ears.

"Yeah, there was proof, generally," I answered.

"Generally?" she asked, pinpointing my inconsistencies.

I refused to look at Jake for rescue. Kat and Oscar weren't here, good, so I could say whatever I wanted to.

"There was one family," I said. "One family. They had kids, a crying baby."

"You killed them all?" Marco asked, his voice genuinely surprised. "But Yeerks don't infest _babies._"

"What else could I have done?" I demanded, suddenly angry at their reactions. "Brought her here? We're not running an orphanage. We're fighting a war."

"But you didn't need to _murder _her…" he started uncertainly.

"People kill babies everyday," I said harshly. "I'm not justifying my actions, I'm just telling you that it happened."

"Okay," Jake said. "It already happened. Next time, be more careful, okay, Maya?"

I nodded.

"No, it's not okay," Cassie said. We all looked away.

"It's better to let ten guilty people go free than to convict one innocent person," she said.

Why did she have to do this? Why did she have to keep bringing up the fact that we were killers, over and over again? Why couldn't she just let us forget?

"Would you like us to do penance?" I asked her sarcastically. "Make some sort of sacrifice?"

She looked at me wearily. Just as wearily as Jake had looked at me a few days before.

"I think they had to," Rachel said quietly, lightly playing with Tobias' feathers with her right hand. "They had to sacrifice the baby, in a sense, to win this war. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices like that."

"But of _innocents?_" Cassie said desperately.

-(Don't you always sacrifice the innocent?)- Tobias asked suddenly. -(Don't the innocent always pay in war? I mean, if they aren't innocent, and they die in war, then it's not a sacrifice, it's just… not justice, but it's just…)-

"It's fair," Marco said. "If you aren't an innocent, and you die, then it's fair. But innocents don't deserve to die. That's why they're the sacrifice, they're the pawn that's given up in order to checkmate the king."

"I don't think anyone deserves to die," Cassie whispered, her eyes filling with tears.

"I do," I told her. "I know several people who deserve to die. I deserve to die for what I've done. So if I die in this war, no one is going to cry about how I was innocent, about how I was sacrificed so the war could be won. And I know it."

"Just be more careful, next time, Maya," Jake told me again. There would be a next time…

"Okay," I responded.

-

A leaf crackled, and I lifted my head off of the floor of our rough cabin. Only Drew, Lola, Oscar, and Carlos were in – the other Nadarlets were keeping guard, I assumed. I swung myself up quietly and stepped out of the "door," pushing aside the flap.

Somebody was sneaking across the campground, and silently I followed whoever it was, making sure that I wasn't heard or seen.

That someone stopped in front of Mom's cabin, and then slipped inside. I felt my stomach clench, and then swiftly I walked to her door, ready to kill whoever it was if I needed to.

I slipped up next to the door, and held my breath, listening.

"Tobias, what are you doing here?" I heard, and relaxed. Okay, it wasn't someone who I needed to kill.

"I heard you were a shrink," Tobias said flatly.

I could sense Mom smile. "A former shrink. Now I'm just a mother of children."

"I wouldn't say that _just _is the right adjective for mother of children…" Tobias started, hesitantly.

Mom said nothing, but I knew that her silence was to tell Tobias that he could keep talking, that she was listening. Mom was probably looking in his eyes, assuring him with all her body language that she valued him as a human being and that she was willing and ready to listen.

She really was a mother.

"Why isn't Loren my mother?" Tobias asked suddenly, and I frowned. I knew Tobias had had issues with that, but I didn't know it was bothering him _this_ much.

Mom didn't say anything for a bit, and then I guess she motioned him to sit down because I heard him kneel.

"Loren…" Mom started, "Hasn't had a very good life. She was poor, and blind, and only knew that she had lost a son and her memory."

"But… I'm here, now. Why can't she be my mother?"

Tobias' voice was desperate, and for a moment I wondered whether our running into his uncle had anything to do with this.

"Why did she give me up?" his voice said, raw with pent up tears.

"Because she loved you, Tobias," Mom said quietly, but with utter certitude. "She thought you would be killed if you stayed with her, and you very nearly were. She didn't want you to be hurt and neglected. But she thought that any life was better than death."

Mom paused for a moment before continuing. "She doesn't know what to do with you, now. Her goal was to save your life, and she did that, after you were born. I don't think her goal was to be a mother."

"Then why did she have me?"

"Oh, Tobias," Mom whispered. "So many parents have children that they want, but don't know how to raise. She might have known that at that age, at that time, she couldn't have been a good mother, even if she wanted you."

Tobias was silent, and Mom sighed. "I know, I'm probably just confusing you, because Anne now calls Loren, Mommy."

A sob answered my mother, and I peeked inside to see Tobias sitting in Mom's lap as she held him.

"Your mother married quickly, impulsively," Mom said slowly. "And that rarely works out okay. The couple thinks that they're in love, but soon, they can't live with each other. Loren was too young; too awed by Elfangor, too awed by any strong dependable male after her father abandoned her and her family."

"How do you know all this?" Tobias whispered, so quietly that I could barely hear him.

"Loren and I have talked, and Maya has told me your history, all of you Animorphs who don't know what you're doing. She's told me hers. And all of you, except Maya, are still children. Rachel… she's a Nadar, but she's not one like Maya, where the Nadar has swallowed everything inside of her. Sure, there is still love in that girl, but each time Maya tries to show it, the Nadar eats it up, or even worse, perverts it to its own means. Maya loves me, but the Nadar would use that love to kill to protect me, because the Nadar loves to kill."

I stepped backwards, almost gasping. How did she know all this? I had always thought of her as just, well, Mom, a middle-class suburbanite who had gone through a pretty bad childhood but ended out okay. That she could be so perceptive… how did she know that I was going to kill the somebody that turned out to be Tobias? How did she _know?_

"I love you," I heard Mom say, and went back to see that she was holding Tobias tightly. "And I know that your heart aches for Loren, as Maya's aches for her Mamai, Saranai, but I'm here to love you, and I will love you."

"Thank you," Tobias' muffled voice said as I sneaked away from the door.

_And I will love you…_

Mamai…

And for the first time since I had become a Nadar, I wondered whether I wanted to remain one.

**Review Responses**

I liked this chapter better. More Tobias angst. And the whole innocents theme I wanted to bring up.

**Mersang**** – **Hi! Glad to see you back. And as for the italisized parts – you're actually the first person who has commented on them, so I was wondering whether they were just being missed, or what. Anyway, yeah, it looks like I'm leaning towards Ax/Maya right now, and for this fic, but I'll have to hand you some cheese as to what I'm going to do in the way way future. Right now, Ax has to get over the fact that Maya is an Elemaki, though. Then we'll move on.

And no problem! Just keep going – a lot of times persistent reviews, or even just one review will create a whole new chapter, or even change the way the story is going, dramatically. So between you and DH, Ax has a chance.

**Kaz**** – :**laughs: Oh, yeah, I have everything planned out. I have stuff in my head for this fic that's fifty years into the future. So if anything seems weird, or pointless, it means I'm most likely going to bring it up later and have it all tie together.

Yeah, forgiveness is a theme that I definitely want to work with. I'm not sure if you've read my fic, The Shrink, but I work with that a _lot _in that fic. And glad you liked – thanks for your review!

**A-cat – **Ah, the italicized quotes. They get explained as the chapters go on. For now, I'll just say it's interaction between Maya and Ax, and it's not unfriendly.

Glad you liked the word Nadarlets! That was kind of a spur of the moment thing, and a reviewer encouraged me to use it in the story, so I had Rachel do so.

Yeah, the whole Nadar thing. They're going to change a lot by the time I'm done with them. The _concept _of Nadar is going to change a lot by the time I'm done with it. And she was a type of mother to them, but she put her own desires for revenge ahead of them not being Nadar, and when mothers do that, families tend to not work out so well.

Yeah, the Nadar have issues. I brought up the theme of killing innocents in war in this chapter, because I wanted to explore that, and I will continue to explore it in later fics. And wait… what ? Like the –(This is thought speech here.)- thing? I'm confused too…

Yeah, I'm supposed to be writing essays right now, but I much prefer writing fanfic. :grins: And don't worry, I can totally understand how school eats away time. It would be awesome if we had a fanfic class or something. :laughs:

**HFN – **Yeah, fanfic gets buggy sometimes. And yup, I'm a junior! A very stressed junior who needs to do well on her SATs and get into college. And thanks, glad you like my writing. I think it's a gift, honestly – I didn't do anything to make it this way.

Your questions are answered by this chapter, I think. Like why the baby gets killed, etc. And thanks – here's the next chapter!

**Chaos Pirate – **Yeah, I'd have to agree. Nadar only get worse. So far, anyway. The way the Animorphs react is in this chapter… just wondering, did you think the reaction was realistic, or a little too harsh?

And that's okay, thanks for your review! Hope you like this chapter.

**AniDragon**** – **Sure! I love his fics, but he hasn't updated in a while. :sighs: And here's the next chapter!

**DH **– Hi! Yup, an update, and here's another one! Glad you liked the Nadarlets. And yeah, that was a very Nadar-ish scene. This chapter picks up the themes from that, and you know how I love playing with themes. :grins: And that's fine – glad you found a time!

**FOL – **Hi, it's okay. So it's getting more boring, hmm? Do you think you could tell me specifically what areas to improve? I know that there hasn't been much action in this fic, which might be what you're talking about. This fic is mostly going to themes vs. fighting, but hopefully The Princess, which is my next fic, and Nadar 3 after that will be more interesting, since they will have both plot twists and action. And here's the update!

**Custardpringle**** – **Did you hear? Christine's rebelling, in Spain. I'm working on my domestic policy here, and now all of a sudden I have a rebellion on my hands. I know how Min felt now, only I'm not as brutal as Min and so I _won't _nuke Spain into oblivion just to get at Christine. I might try negotiating with her, seeing if she will consider the lives lost if we do go to war, but I think that I'm the only person who cares about that sort of thing in this game… :sighs:

**Hey **– So glad to hear from you.

**Beekiller**** – **Yeah, that's true. Not so much in this one though, so hope you enjoy it. And I got your story! Sorry for not reviewing right away – school has been brutally murdering all my time and even now I'm sneaking this time in at the risk of my life… thanks for your review!

**Hm**** – **I know I can, but I don't like to. Like Maya, I view cursing fundamentally as a lack of self control.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: I have now spilled into book #50, The Ultimate. So, for the first time, there will be scenes that are directly from the books, only they are from Maya's point of view. The quotes, obviously, will be verbatim.

-

_It was of respect, for an Elemaki._

Chapter 5:

A few days later, Rachel's shouting voice caught my attention, and I thought, What now? Don't we already have enough issues?

I meandered over to where people were gathering, not really wanting to get involved, emotionally or otherwise, but feeling compelled to.

By the time I got close enough to see what was going on, Rachel's sisters had surrounded their mother, and Jordan had taken Naomi's hand.

I walked closer, to see a tear roll down Sara's cheek, which only annoyed me further. My Nadarlets didn't cry, why did she have to tax our energy further? Weren't we doing enough, bleeding for these kids?

_Your Nadarlets are Nadar, Maya. Sara is not, _a voice sternly told me, but I brushed it away. I _wanted _to be annoyed.

I got close enough to hear Naomi coldly tell two Hork-Bajir, "Don't touch me again. Don't touch anyone in my family. If you do, I'll..." She stopped, and tried to get the words out of her mouth. "If you do I'll..."

Do nothingI finished for her. Get a clue. You're stuck here, just as firmly as we all are. And you can't do anything about it, and neither can we. So deal.

I heard Marco stop a grim laugh, and almost rolled my eyes. Yeah, I knew how he felt. My mother had accepted that she was helpless, even if she didn't like it, just like Marco's parents had.

Only I felt annoyed, not amused, or even grimly satisfied when Naomi began crying. She was an adult – she should act like one. I glanced at Cassie, and saw that look on her face, the one that she always had when she yearned to erase someone else's pain.

I waited for Mom to do something, but realized that she was probably still sleeping – she had been up all night helping Gilbert get over some sickness. Instead, Eva walked up to Naomi to give comfort, saying softly, "It takes a while to accept. Come on. Let's talk."

Slowly, the two women walked toward Eva's cabin with Jordan and Sara following closely behind.

I watched them walk away, watched as Cassie turned towards Jake to tell him something. I leaning forward, not obviously eavesdropping, but close enough to still be able to hear what they were saying.

"Can you talk to Rachel" Cassie said quietly to Jake. "She explodes at her mom and it just makes Naomi more determined not to deal with this."

Jake's voice was impatient. "I've tried to talk to Rachel and she won't listen. So, no, I won't talk to her again. And no, I don't want to talk to you about my feelings."

Whoa… something was definitely bothering Jake now. I mean, _I _had said those things about Cassie, but never to her face, and I was _Maya. _

I glanced at Cassie, and saw her stunned face, saw her holding herself perfectly still. Neither of them noticed me as Jake began to walk away from Cassie.

She called after him. "Jake! Things are falling apart."

He turned around so abruptly that I was almost surprised. Then he looked at Cassie, straight at her, but I could see his eyes…

They looked like mine.

"You think I don't know that?" he snapped at Cassie. "I know we're slipping up. Making mistakes. I know we're at each other's throats. And I know that if it weren't for Toby, this whole camp would probably be just a scar on the ground by now. What I don't know, Cassie, and this is the hard part . . . What I don't know is what I'm supposed to do about it."

For the first time, I realized how much I, too, depended on Jake. We were borrowing so much of his sanity and energy, and now, fear hit me as I imagined for a single moment what we would be like without Jake.

Cassie didn't give up. "It's going take time," I heard her say calmly. "These people, our parents, have been dragged into this - into a refuge camp - against their wills. Their world has been torn apart. We have to respect their reluctance to fight alongside us. But, Jake, somebody's got to take charge."

"Fine. You take charge."

"No," Cassie said firmly. "I'm not a leader, Jake. You are. You're going to have to talk to my parents. And to Rachel's mother and sisters. Even Tobias's mom."

"Why should they listen to me" Jake countered. "Look at the situation. We're hiding in the forest, living on the charity of the Hork-Bajir. If you were an adult - or even another kid, not Cassie - would you listen to me? No, you wouldn't. So why don't you just leave me alone"

Because we need you, I said silently. I'm sorry I've been… this way to all of you, to you, too, Jake, I'm sorry. If you give up this fight than I will, too, because I can't keep going unless all of are together.

I couldn't tell him. Couldn't give him any of myself. Couldn't afford to. Wouldn't.

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," Cassie called after him when he turned, but he didn't stop walking.

"You're a coward!" she said, almost angrily, but I could see from her face that she regretted those words as soon as she had said them.

Jake stopped and turned. His face was a stranger's, cold and hard. "What did you call me?"

"A coward," she repeated, flinching. Oh, Cassie. "Now that it's the final crisis, you're turning chicken on us."

Jake laughed wearily, a laugh and a look that I had grown accustomed to without noticing. How could I have been so stupid? I had depended on these… these Earthlings, these humans, and now that they were falling apart, I would too. How could I have been so stupid as to depend on anyone but myself?

"I'm not chicken," Jake said. "I'm just trying to give everybody a fighting chance. I'm not going to insist people do what I say when I don't have the slightest idea what's right or wrong. What's smart or stupid. Cassie, it's my fault we're on the run. You can't deny that."

Cassie reached for his hand, and said, "Maybe you're right, Jake. And maybe you're wrong. Maybe you are a great leader, after all."

He tried to pull away but Cassie held on.

"No, Jake. Listen to me. If that's the truth, you have to take charge. And if you really are a failure and it really is all your fault, then it's your responsibility to get us out of here. We need a leader, Jake. Either way, it has to be you."

I smiled, grimly. Cassie was smart. She knew Jake's weaknesses. He had a sense of responsibility, and it was going to destroy him to not follow it.

"Marco can be in charge," he said helplessly, pulling his hand away. "He's smarter than I am. Maya, can. She's a leader – she led her Nadarlets for years. Or Tobias. Or Ax. Or you. Rachel. Anyone. Anyone but me. You know why I was even in charge in the first place, Cassie? Because once upon a time, a long time ago, Marco said I was."

"Jake, that's not the whole truth..." Cassie started.

"Well, now my term of office is over," he interrupted, speaking bitterly. "So how about for once you guys figure things out and tell me what to do."

Then he turned and walked away.

And just kept walking.

No.

I couldn't let him go.

I followed him, carefully, quietly, as he made his way to the edge of the woods, as he looked around, as he stepped forward and was hidden by the foliage.

Cassie had turned back, and was walking unsteadily towards the main fire. I watched her go, and then continued after Jake.

I stopped at the edge of the forest, and listened, waiting to hear if he had gone ahead, or if he had stopped, and heard sounds of weeping.

I hardened my heart. _You can't cry, Jake,_ I explained to him. _Everyone else needs you. If you cry, then everyone will break down._

"I don't care."

I froze, and then looked forward.

Jake was sitting on the ground, leaning back against a tree, his hands hanging down. He was playing with the dirt, picking it up, and letting it fall through his fingers, picking it up, and letting it fall again.

"I don't care if you don't care," I countered, and then waited.

"I'm sick of it all," he said. "Cassie got to quit. Marco was going to. Why can't I?"

I glared at him, building up my rage. I wouldn't allow myself to feel pity for him. He _needed _to keep going, for us, _regardless _of how _he _felt.

With a few swift steps I had covered the distance between us and was kneeling on the ground next to him. He looked up with uninterested eyes, and lifted his hand out of the dirt.

I grabbed him by the collar and yanked him up.

"Jake," I hissed, "You are going to keep going. I don't care if you want to die, I don't care if you think you're a failure because you couldn't get your parents and Tom out."

Jake winced, and then looked at me. "You know, you're the only person who ever dared to approach me about that."

"Why, is it because you're all high and mighty?" I yelled, and then picked him up off the ground. Jake's a big guy, but he came up with me and didn't fight. Furious at his apathy, I swung my left hand around and slapped him.

His head jerked to one side, but he didn't move. I shoved him away from me, and watched as he turned his head back, a slow, crazy smile spreading across his face.

I had never been so mad at anyone in my life.

"You know what, Jake?" I said more quietly, but just as intensely. "When I was with my kids, I could have given up. I could have walked out on them. I could have walked out on Eun-hee. I didn't need her. I could have left them all and made it on my own. In fact, I would have been better off on my own. But you know what? I _stayed._"

"I stayed," I repeated. "I stayed and starved with them, I stayed and watched as they died, I stayed with them. Out of my entire life, that's the only thing I've ever been proud of. I hate myself – you think I don't? I hate the fact that I love blood, that seeing it gives me a high. I hate that I instinctively think of murder as the first solution."

"I've hated my entire life, I've hated my entire self, but I stayed, and you know what, Jake? It's worth it. It's worth the hell, the torture, it's worth it all to know that you stayed even when you wanted to give up, even when you would have killed to give up. But you _don't._ And that's what makes the difference. That's what wins wars, Jake."

His helplessness was coming out more easily, and he repeated again, "I don't care."

He didn't hear any of what I had said.

My fury broke and my anger burned and I picked up a branch and came at him with it and hit him as hard as I could with it. Jake staggered to the side, and I beat him again, again, again, until the blood was gushing from his mouth and nose, until he was choking, coughing up blood as he crawled on all fours to get away from my rage.

I stood over him with a bloody branch in my hand, stood over the boy who could have been at school with girls desperate for him to smile at them, stood over the boy who was no longer a boy but a war general, and I brought the branch down on his back, shoving him to the ground.

I knelt beside him, and dropped the branch. Tore off part of my sleeve and cleaned his face up, helped him lean back against the tree.

"You just need to clean yourself up, and then you'll be fine," I told him brusquely. "If I had really wanted to hurt you, I would have."

I saw Jake close his eyes, and I knew he was savoring the pain. How often had I done that? How often had I come out of a fight black and blue and bleeding and think: _this is what I deserve_?

He needed an excuse. A reason to keep going.

Okay, fine then. I'd give it to him.

"Unless you stay, I'll beat you everyday," I told him, and then saw his smile return, but without the craziness.

"Okay, I'm definitely staying, then," he said slowly, his eyes still closed, but he didn't move.

Another reminder, then.

"Prince Jake…"

"Don't call me prince," he mumbled, as his eyes flew open, and I knew that Jake was back.

I helped him up, and together we walked out of the woods, circled the perimeter to avoid meeting people, and then went to the lake to wash him up, when suddenly my vision swam and I fell to my knees as shimmering rainbows danced in the sky above me. What was going on?

"You okay?" Jake asked me, and I nodded, getting up, the rainbows disappearing.

"Just dizzy," I answered.

"I was the one who you beat up," he joked, and I smiled back at him.

I knew that maybe even tomorrow his indifference might return, but at least for this moment, my prince was back.

**Review Responses**

My next chapter will probably be long in coming… so enjoy this one!

**Hey **:cringes: Sorry…

**Elwing**– I never was sure about who Tobias' uncle was, but I did read the Diversion so you're probably right. But thanks for letting me know – and thanks for reviewing!

**A-cat – **Yay! Thank you for the long review. :hugs: And although this chapter might not encourage you about Maya's possible change, hold on! And I'm glad you liked that scene! I wanted to start Helen and Tobias's relationship, and that was a way to start it. And thanks:grins: And I was thinking that maybe Helen knew Maya was outside, but didn't want to say it as an absolute.

I agree with you about the orphanage. Maya uses words to her benefit, and changes truths to lies to get her way.Sacrifice is something I wanted to bring up for a while. I guess I was trying to say that right now, although Maya and the Animorphs are sacrificing their lives, they're also sacrificing the lives of other people to win this war. And in this case, they are the sacrificers, they are the ones who shed the blood of others to win the war. To get something that you can't get with your current means, you have to sacrifice in another aspect to get that. For example, if I wanted to buy a car, I would have to sacrifice on buying, oh, candy or whatever, something I was buying, to get the money to buy the car. In the same way, these innocents are being sacrificed to win the war. The point I'm trying to bring up, is: Is it worth it? Are the sacrifices worth it?

Oh, yeah, sorry, I did give them the morphing power in one of the scene change markers. :looks sheepish: Concept of Nadar is going to change. :hands over packet of cheese: Maya/Ax or Maya/Marco, time and updates will tell. Reviewers were bugging me about Maya and Ax, so I'm going to play with them a little, and then we'll see.And here's the update!

**AniDragon**– Yup! More Tobias angst. :grins: And it's okay for the delay, I don't exactly update that quickly, either. I hope you get this chapter, though! By the way, just out of curiosity, how did you first hear of my fics?

**HFN – **Thanks! Yeah, I do have to take the new SATs. And awesome – Asian power:grins: Thanks for your review!

**Kaz456 – **Oh, no, you're not reading too much into it. And I'm sorry about your writer's block, but glad you like my writing style. :grins: Yeah... that's an idea I've wanted to work with for a while. KA was really good at that, I was really struck when Rachel died. And no problem! I love long reviews. :grins again: And thanks again – and for your review!

**Wraithlord**** – **Hey! I haven't seen you in a while. Glad you decided to drop by. And you like the darker parts of this fic, huh:grins: And I did email Fiery, and we talked some about setting up my fics there. Thanks for tipping me off! And of course you can pimp your own journal here. :grins again: Thanks for your review!

**Eyes of Forest – **I missed you! Thanks for reviewing this time. :hugs: And I'm glad you liked that chapter. And thanks for the tip about Cassie. Don't feel hesitant about bringing up tips about the characters and plot – that's the only way I can get better. And here's the update!

**CronoMaster**** – **Sorry, I didn't do any background specifically in this fic because other reviewers asked for that. I will do a more extensive background in my next few fics, however. Policy? I'm unaware of any policy... but thanks for your review!


	6. Author's Note

To all my readers:

Okay, here's the deal. I know I've been away for a long time, and it's because of school. However, the reason I'm putting this up is because I need to know what you guys want.

I have the last two chapters written already. However, I was hoping to wait until I could get a copy of book 50 (I own no Animorph books, I only borrow them from libraries) since I was writing scenes from there, from Maya's point of view. And since I don't own them, and can't drive (yet) I can't get a copy, which means I wrote them from her point of view based on my memory of a book that I read more than a year ago. Therefore, it's not as good as I wanted, so I decided to wait.

But it looks like if I wait, I'm not going to be able to update until the summer time. So, I wanted to know whether you would all be okay with me posting these chapters whose quality isn't as good.

Unless, of course, one of you, or multiple people would like to email me the exact text of book 50, The Ultimate, or just the scenes that I need (the scene where the Animorphs meet with James the first time, the scene where they get captured by Tom, and the battle scene, and basically how the book ends.) But if not, then I can post these chapters as they are, I just want to let you know there's a reason why they aren't as good, or why there might be inaccuracies related to the text.

So, please vote and tell me whether you want me to update sooner, with the version I have now, or wait until summertime! And I'm posting the review responses here because I've already done them.

KP

**Teasers to Chapter 6:

* * *

**

_How many times had I gone over this Fight of the Forgiven in my mind? How many times had I despaired, knowing that I would never perform it?

* * *

_

I think I would have killed myself.

* * *

Funny how people thought that to be equal, you had to be the same.

* * *

Had to get at Tom… couldn't let someone do that to a prince… not to my prince… 

The prince I had beaten with a bloody branch only a few days before.

* * *

"And who wins?" 

I do, I said silently. I win. Because my Nadar and I aren't separate – we are one, so no matter who wins, I win.

* * *

No kill them both faster that way easier

* * *

I am not a body for you to use or abuse. I am not a womb for you to fill for your pleasure only. I am not a body for your twisted mind to control. I am not a body for you to impose your will upon.

* * *

_I am not a body.

* * *

_

**Review Responses**

**Lilyofthevalley – **:is tres glad that you liked my fics: And if you want a summary of Maya's life, the Nadar Chronicles basically and what a Nadar is, here's a link: double-u double-u double-u dot fanfiction dot net backslash s backslash 1994587 backslash 5 backslash – the italisized part (the second half basically.) For now, it'll suffice to say that a Nadar is a bloodthirsty killer, although that definition has been evolving as Maya has grown.

And thank you for the kind compliment! And I will try and update as soon as possible, with whichever version that the majority of my readers prefer.

**Wraithlord – **I'm fairly sure that other readers got pleasure from it as well. Sorry to hear about your Internet problems, hope it works out! And the vote is there. :grins:

**H-F-N **– Glad you liked that scene. And actually, you've been reviewing my fic since Nadar Chronicles 1, I believe. Only A-cat and DH have been reviewing consistently from the Elemaki Chronicles.

**Dark-Angels-Tears – **Yay:hugs: So glad you liked. Thanks for your review! And cool pen name, by the way.

**Birdie - **:jumps on top of and hugs to death: I missed you! I was wondering where you went. Glad you liked that scene – I'm getting the feeling that it was quite popular. And thanks for your review!

**Eyes of Forest – **Yup, exactly. :nods: I was trying to expand a bit on how Jake is breaking down, and how he wasn't meant to be a commander of an army, how he's just a kid thrust into this position. I do plan on using that theme of leadership later on, though, so thanks for bringing it up!

**AniDragon – **Cool. And glad you liked the chappie. Here's the next one!

**LizBeth37 **– I pretty much answered your review in my email, so I'll just note that here. Thanks for your review!

**Hey – **You're too kind.

**Elwing **– Yup, Maya's a violent character. I think Maya just wanted to snap him out of his indifference, and the only way she could think of was to do what she's best at, namely hurting people. And he'd probably just morph it out, although I didn't think about that – thanks for pointing it out to me! And oh, I don't know. :grins: Some of my reviewers have been with me for a while, and so our conversations (between the reviews and the review responses) build up, especially because we get to know each other pretty well since it's been over a year since I started writing my very first Elemaki Chronicles.

**A-cat – **Whoops! Sorry about that typo. And YES! Maya has changed over time, without even realizing it. :grins: And when (or if) she does realize it, she's going to have to come to terms with a lot of things...

Yeah, I wanted to do that when Jake gave up, so I had Maya do it. And glad you liked that part – the one thing Maya has that she can be proud of.

Ah, the rainbows. As a little teaser, the rainbows will show up in... let me think... a year from now (in the story) and then when Maya is around forty years old. So they are there for a purpose, but just not bringing up what they are for, yet. CHEESE!

True, there are two parts to that, and I will bring up the second part in my later fics. Whether soldiers are a sacrifice since they signed up to die, or whether the civilians who had no choice are the sacrifice.

Oh, whoops, sorry! I meant that I implied that the Nadarlets got the morphing power in a scene change marker without actually writing the scene where Maya gives it to them.

And Maya and Ax, huh? Actually, Maya is human now for exactly the same amount of time that she was an Elemaki, so she's pretty much even. Interspecies marriage is something I'm going to go into later, though. Although yeah, I tend to agree that Ax seems to match her better. But we shall see:grins evilly:

Thanks! It's been a while since Valentine's Day, but happy Valentine's Day to you, too!

**Beekiller – **Hey, I get that too. Where I get all dizzy if I stand up too quickly. Anyway, the rainbows thing, pretty much what I told A-cat: "Ah, the rainbows. As a little teaser, the rainbows will show up in... let me think... a year from now (in the story) and then when Maya is around forty years old. So they are there for a purpose, but just not bringing up what they are for, yet. CHEESE! "

Cheese is what I give instead of foreshadowing. :grins: And okay, I'll go check your fic out!

**DH** - Yay! You're back:throws flowers: And yes, that's Maya for sure. And I'm glad you liked her speech. It's the one thing she has to be proud of, and I'm glad of that, too. Maya is one very complicated little creature.

Ah, Ax. He should show up significatly in the next chapter. :grins: And for the last chapter, am tres glad you liked that last scene. We shall see how Maya goes...

And here's the udpate!

**Kaz456** - That's fine - and I'm glad you liked the chappie! And yeah, Maya does act like that. Struggling with both sides, unsure of where to turn, needing a pivot point that she can spring from. An incident to make her decide which road to take.

Yeah, I was talking to A-cat one time about Rachel's death, and described it as "sharply sweet" or better, "painfully sweet." I actually really enjoy reading and writing about sharply or painfully sweet moments, so although I guess it was annoying that the series ended, I'm glad that K.A. ended it the way she did.

**F-O-L** - Cool. And just to keep on top of things, what exactly made this chapter better? Was it the style, or the events? I just want to get a hold of it so I can continue to improve. And that's good - here's the next chapter!

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**_D_O_N_'T _F_O_R_G_E_T _T_O _V_O_T_E.

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**


	7. Chapter 6

_We both stepped backwards at the same time, and turned in a circle, our blades flashing as they missed each other by inches. How many times had I gone over this Fight of the Forgiven in my mind? How many times had I despaired, knowing that I would never perform it?_

Chapter 6:

_Crazy, crazy_, I thought as I pedaled madly away with Jake, Marco and Cassie. _What was going on with Jake? Had he seriously lost it? I mean, I had beaten him up pretty badly, but I didn't think it was _that_ bad._

We dove quickly into the alley, and I morphed to roach, waiting for the others to catch up while I scuttled out of the way into what looked like an empty building. We demorphed quickly, and found ourselves in what had to be the storeroom of a costume shop.

_Great_, I said silently to Jake as he reached for a Spider-Man mask. _And do you expect _me_ to get all dressed up?_

Apparently he did.

In a few minutes, I was a bouncing, beautiful fairy, complete with a silvery wand and a silk tutu.

"I feel stupid," Marco declared, and I agreed silently with him. _Yes, I do, too._ Cassie assured him that he did indeed look stupid while I rolled my eyes.

We began moving through the building, and I fell back, letting the others to lead. To tell you the truth, I wasn't very comfortable in a building housed just for _vecols. _I had been one myself, and wasn't interested in heading down that path again.

Not to mention I was just the tiniest bit jealous. I would have killed for a place that would have taken my brother and me in and entertained us, even with cheap looking kids like us.

So I stayed silent as Cassie and Jake had their little spat, once again worrying slightly. I hope I didn't do anything lasting to Jake… or maybe my actions brought on this new determination that was, honestly, just a little bit scary.

"You still there?" Marco joked, as I rolled my eyes. I had been doing that a lot lately.

And then we were with children around our age.

I shrank from them; I'll be honest enough to admit. I didn't want to feel their bitterness, their despair, because otherwise… I think I would have killed myself. Didn't want to feel their pain. Didn't want to listen as the boy in a wheelchair, James, spoke to us harshly.

Of course I did listen though, and noted his anger. Yes, he would fight, I could tell that much already.

But I didn't realize the depth of his anger until we went past the double doors to talk privately with James.

I listened silently as Jake explained our entire secret, and I began to get this itching feeling as I saw how James took it. He took it, well… like a Nadar.

And then his anger shined through.

"I'm sure when you talked about this at school, it seemed like a really good joke. But when you go back, you can give your friends a message from the 'gang-of-pathetically-grateful-for-attention-kids-at-the-rehab-center.'"

"But…" Cassie began.

I shrugged his anger off of me, letting it slide to the ground like a duck lets water slide off of her back. I knew by the time we got around to morphing for them, they'd believe us, so no need to worry about convincing him, right?

But Jake was doing it all wrong. Don't use your body against him; I wanted to tell my prince. He's going to feel threatened.

And sure enough, suddenly Jake fell, sprawled over the floor, tripped by a boy with his wheelchair, a boy who society had condemned to live a life alone for not having a whole body, for not being like the majority.

"You don't even want to know what Kelly can do to you, you make her mad enough," James said with a cocked eyebrow.

Well, you don't want to know what _I _can do to you if you make _me _mad enough, I told this kid. Okay, I understand that you're mad, but I've been through worse than you and on _top _of that I dressed up in my fairy costume to watch you humiliate our leader? I don't _think _so…

I therefore launched myself at James and grabbed him by the throat.

"Maya!" I heard Marco say in the background, but I didn't think of anything but crushing the life out of this boy, squeezing him slowly…

"Maya. Stop," Jake ordered from the ground, and I flicked my eyes to him before obeying and releasing James, who gasped for breath.

"Sorry," I muttered, before stepping back.

"That was Maya in berserk stage," Marco said with a laugh. "She gets like that sometimes. The only person who can snap her out of it is Jake, and sometimes not even him."

Jake began claiming to his feet as I stepped back, before stopping and saying, "Look… demonstration time."

"Go for it, dude," Marco said, his arms crossed. "We've got nothing to lose."

True. We _did_ need more fighters. My Nadarlets weren't enough, I admitted, not with the Yeerks threatening to go all out at any moment.

And so we were here, in a home for children who society had deemed unfit to live with everybody else.

I grinned, crookedly, to myself, as James' eyes grew wide as Jake's body twisted and contorted into the form of a tiger, when my words of just a moment ago hit me. _A home for children who society had deemed unfit to live with everybody else…_

Morphing. Once they had the morphing power, some of them could be healed…

For they were _vecols, _now, of course, why wouldn't they jump at the chance. I knew I would have. I mean, I had been a _vecol_ before. I remembered what it was like to be different.

Another thought struck me briefly as Collette, another girl in the center, showed up just in time to see Jake the tiger.

Funny how people thought that to be equal, you had to be the same.

* * *

I watched as Rachel closed her eyes as the blind girl acquired her. I looked briefly around, bored, when I saw Cassie shrink, morphing into something small.

(What are you doing?)- I thought at her, when the doors blasted open and all hell broke loose.

Instinctively I ducked and dropped to the floor for cover. What was going on?

A rough hand jerked me up off of the floor and I stared into the face of a Hork-Bajir. A Hork-Bajir Controller, whose face was twisted into a mask of hate.

"Maya Lancing," he sneered. "The Nadar."

My heart was racing, but I controlled myself and was even able to make my face look bored. "Yeah?"

(Get my kids,)- I told Cassie, hoping that she had escaped, but not daring to look and make sure she did. –(Get my Nadarlets. And James and his crew.)-

(Okay,)- I heard from her, and inwardly I sighed with relief. Then the Hork-Bajir Controller lifted me off the ground, and too late I remembered that I probably shouldn't have been too smart with him…

"Let her go," a cocky voice ordered, and I was put back down onto the ground, thankfully. I looked past the Hork-Bajir Controller and found myself staring into Tom's eyes.

He glanced at me, smiled, and then after saying, "Okay, let's all leave quietly," we were marched into the hall.

Tom turned his eyes from mine and said to his brother – no, the Yeerk used Tom's mouth to say to Tom's brother, "My host's own brother!" as the Yeerk used Tom's hand to strike Jake.

I stifled a gasp, as Jake fell backwards, and was propped up by a Hork-Bajir, as Tom's hand hit him across the face, as Tom's mouth ranted, "Do you have any idea what you've done to me? All that time we were searching for _you._ Looking for Andalites. And it was you! Right there in my own house. Right down the hall. I could have killed you a million times! Visser One almost starved me to death for my stupidity."

Had to get at Tom… couldn't let someone do that to a prince… not to my prince…

The prince I had beaten with a bloody branch only a few days before.

They tied my hands behind my back, and forced us to walk. Prisoners of war, held hostage, unable to morph because of the threat that Tom – no, Tom's _Yeerk ­_– held against Jake's parents.

We were utterly hopeless and helpless.

Not while I live. I wouldn't morph, but I wasn't Maya the Nadar for nothing.

I stood up straight, and quietly worked at loosening the bonds that tied my hands together. We had practiced this in the streets, and we had needed it, too, whenever we had fights with other gangs that tried to steal our food, or our scoop area.

Twist hands around. Loosen rope just enough to allow wiggle room for wrists. Rub wrists together, back and forth, back and forth until they turn red. Repeat process until there is just enough room to contract a hand tightly together. Use all hand muscles to make hand as thin as possible.

The last part was the most painful, but the practice paid off when my right hand slipped out of the loosened cords. I held it still against my back, and then pulled my left hand out as well.

I began walking faster, not fast enough to be noticed, but enough so I could catch up with Tom who was leading us. Tom…

He turned, and I caught my breath as he looked out over us. He was a very good-looking boy, just like Jake. If only The Sharing had left him alone…

Tom's Yeerk caught me looking at him, and smirked. He motioned me towards him, and gleeful at my success, I came.

I kept my hands behind my back.

"So, Maya," he started. I said nothing.

"Tell me about Nadar."

"We're killers," I explained, inching towards him.

"Can you fight?"

I started to say, no duh, haven't you seen me? when I realized that he was asking more than just about physical fighting.

Can you fight?

"I have very good self-control," I explained. "I can control my emotions and my facial expressions. My anger isn't as easily controlled, but if I really wanted to, I could. Mentally, I fight with my desire to fight all the time."

"And who wins?"

I do, I said silently. I win. Because my Nadar and I aren't separate – we are one, so no matter who wins, I win.

But instead of telling him this, I attacked.

Sudden turn towards him, get him to look startled, bring out arms above my head, reach for his throat, have to choke the Yeerk out choke him out

No kill them both faster that way easier

I stepped backwards to deliver my death kick, intending to break Tom's windpipe but those few precious seconds had already been wasted. Strong Hork-Bajir arms and rough Hork-Bajir talons grabbed me, and I struggled uselessly against them.

Tom stepped closer to me, smirking again. I wanted to kill that mouth, kill the brain that made the mouth move, I wanted to

"Very impetuous," he said quietly, lifting his hand. I thought he was going to slap me, but I didn't flinch and looked directly into his eyes, daring him to hit me.

Instead, he did something that surprised me very much.

He grabbed my face with one hand, jerked my chin up, and kissed me lightly on my lips.

I jumped, surprised, but the Hork-Bajir held me in place. Revolted, I tried to get away from his lips, but I was helpless in his grasp, in the grasp of his soldiers, as helpless as when the pirates had tried to rape me as an eight-year-old girl only I had no gun ready to shoot and Tom wasn't drunk…

Finally, he stopped, but he didn't let go of my face.

"A Nadar…" he murmured, his eyes greedy, and I felt fear start from my womb and travel upwards. _Is this what you felt, Mamai? Is this what you felt every time you saw a male?_

"My host body is attracted to your body," he told me. _Thanks so much for the info. I really needed to hear that. _"And I am attracted to the idea of controlling a Nadar… would you make a good host, do you think?"

His hand held my face tightly, squeezing my cheeks together so firmly that it hurt to speak, but I couldn't let this pass.

"I am not a body," I managed, and winced when his hand gripped my face even more forcefully.

"No?"

I am not a body for you to use or abuse. I am not a womb for you to fill for your pleasure only. I am not a body for your twisted mind to control. I am not a body for you to impose your will upon.

"I am not a body!" I shouted at him. "I'm a living, breathing sentient! I'm a woman with a mind, not just a woman's body!"

Do you have any respect for me, Yeerk? I know you view me as a body for one of your brothers or sisters to use. And at the same time you use your host's desire for a woman's body to tell me that I am nothing but a body, that I have no mind, no soul, no spirit. That I am only an animal.

Tom's mouth laughed, and he took both hands and ran them all over my body while the Hork-Bajir held me still.

"I feel a body," he told me. "I see a body."

"You're blind," I spat at him. "You only see a body for you to exploit. But you don't know me. You don't know my fears, my desires, my hopes. You don't know my spirit. I'm not just a body. I'm worth more than that."

Tom's Yeerk was quiet at he looked at me, looked at me bound, but defiant.

Then he bent down and whispered in my ear.

"You may think you are more than a body," he murmured, "But I control you. I will break you down, until you become nothing more than a body."

"Take her," he said, waving his hand at the Hork-Bajir.

They forced me away, but I refused to break eye contact with Tom's eyes, and so I glared at him for as long as I could.

_I am not a body._

_

* * *

_

**Review Responses**

And neither are you.

**H-F-N – **Oh, sorry, you might have, but you didn't review it, so I wouldn't know. And yes, I've been writing for a year now! And thanks, Happy Easter to you too. And by vote, I just wanted to know whether people wanted me to wait or update right away.

**Elwing**** - **:hides: Yeah, sorry, it has been a while. But don't worry, I won't lose faith even if I'm writing these into my eighties. I have a plan, and this entire series to finish, and I won't stop unless unforeseen things happen, like I die.

Yeah, I don't own any, but I think that will change as of today. My mom doesn't really approve of "kid's" books, so I don't own any, but I ordered two off of Amazon today, one of which I haven't read, but I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy it. And I got a copy of book #50, so it all worked out anyway.

**Anidragon**** – **I'm actually pretty glad that I managed to get a copy because I was pretty far off in some aspects. But thanks – I did get it posted:grins:

**A-cat – **Hey, thanks, but I managed to get a copy on my own. And I'm sorry about the library trouble:hugs: I hope this chapter helps out.

**Aldrea**** – **And for the love of sugar I have posted. :grins:

**Birdie - **:grins: And I have posted!

**East Coast Ryder – **Hey, I decided to post anyway, I managed to get a copy of the book. But thanks! I hope this is both quality and on time. And sorry about the teasers. :grins:

**DH – **Yeah, I did put quite a bit of editing into this chapter once I got a copy of number 50. And don't worry, I won't lose interest unless I die early or something. I've got this entire series to write, for about a hundred years to go… And I hope you enjoyed the scene with Maya and Tom! And thanks about the Amazon – I actually used it to get something different. But you need a credit card for those purchases, don't you? How do you pay for Amazon without a credit card?

**Mersang**** – **Sorry about the teasers… I just couldn't resist:hides:

**Kaz456 – **Actually, Orson Scott Card came up with the phrase "sharply sweet" in his book, Earthborn. I just loved it so much that I used it when talking about it to A-cat, and we both kind of latched onto it, because it is a perfect description, no? And yes, the Animorphs are filled with this painful sweetness, especially Rachel's death.

And for a little bit of cheese, I'll hint that I'm not much for perfect picture endings… so watch out for how my series ends! And thanks for the offer, but I managed to get a copy.


	8. Chapter 7

_We continued to fight, our choreographed steps creating a beautiful, deadly dance._

_Whoever choreographed this fight must have been crazy, I thought. A fight of reconciliation between an Elemaki and an Andalite?_

_Whoever choreographed this fight must have been put to death._

Chapter 7:

It all happened so quickly that I barely had time to blink.

I reached out, desperate, my feeble human hands trying to keep the Visser's deadly morphed tentacles from choking Jake, but I was thrown to the side. Frantically I began fighting my way towards him, but the Hork-Bajir surrounding the two of them slashed at me and I just managed to throw myself to the ground to avoid being sliced in two.

I needed to morph to something practical, but I couldn't get my mind to focus. I had demorphed to human when I was bleeding too badly to stand, but now that I was human… _Think, Maya, think, _I ordered myself, when I saw Aximili.

He was surrounded, fighting Hork-Bajir and human Controllers at all angles. His tail was flashing, mowing them down, but more kept coming.

He was going to fall.

And I knew it.

I started moving towards him, but it felt like I was trying to walk through mud with snowshoes on. And then it hit me, _why was I doing this?_

Just let him die.

He's an Andalite, you fool. The same species that slaughtered your mother and brother. The same species that married your mother and abandoned her. The same species that abandoned _you. _Let him die. Then your revenge will start. One Andalite down, only a planet of them more to go.

I looked at him fighting, my feet perfectly still, heard him call for help.

_The same species that married your mother and abandoned her…_

He _is_ your species. Aximili and you are the same species, another voice told me. It was a stranger's voice, and I had to listen carefully to understand it, for it had a strange accent.

You two are of the same species. You are different races, but you are of the same species. Your father was an Andalite, you know.

My father is currently killing my prince, I told the voice, and it responded.

You love your prince because he is an Animorph.

And you love the Animorphs because they have fought and bled for you.

And Aximili is an Animorph.

I could hear from somewhere, sometime long ago, a lunch conversation, when I first met Cassie…

_I was actually eating lunch that day, with Rachel and her friend Cassie, who was black._

"You're friends?" I asked incredulously when Rachel introduced her. "But you're different races."

There was an awkward pause before Rachel bluntly said, "You didn't act like a racist last night."

I searched my mind for the definition of racist, and came up with: a person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others.

And judging from Rachel's tone, this was an unfavorable thing to be.

But... why? All the Andalites I ever met were racist.

"You mean it's wrong to be racist on Earth?"

They looked at me quizzically. "Yeah, no duh, it's wrong," Rachel said while Cassie questioned, "What do you mean, on Earth?"

Shoot.

"Oh," I said, blushing as if I had said something stupid (which I had). "You know, I came from North Korea, and America is so different, that I tend to call just America, Earth, or anywhere outside of North Korea, Earth."

They bought it, but only because nobody in America really knows what North Korea is like.

"So," I continued, "It's ok if you're not racist?"

"Duh. It's wrong to be racist," Rachel said.

Cassie gently added, "It used to be ok to be racist, but now most people aren't anymore. Or they shouldn't be, anyway."

I nodded, almost in awe. The fact that different races could be friends, freely...

Maybe, if it had been that way on the Andalite Home World, I might have been friends with an Andalite.

No. I immediately rejected that thought. The Andalites were vile, despicable, death-worthy scum.

I laughed at that bittersweet memory.

I hated Aximili because he was an Andalite, an Andalite that I didn't know, and an Andalite that I didn't want to know.

But now, I knew him.

And so I could no longer hate him.

With that my feet were freed and I ran to help him.

A towering Hork-Bajir lifted a fist and slammed it into Aximili's side, and lifted it to deliver the final death blow when I jumped and lifted both feet off the ground, launching them straight into the alien's face.

"Ahhh!" he cried, as I grabbed a human Controller and skewered him on that same Hork-Bajir's blades.

"Morph!" I shouted at Aximili. He was bleeding heavily, and looked like he was about to collapse. He began to morph while I, very stupidly, decided to take on these immense aliens as a human.

I let my mind go and fought without thinking, fought with body reflexes ingrained into me ever since I had asked J.P. to teach me how to fight. I ducked and weaved and played short man's game – for I was certainly shorter than the Hork-Bajir.

Duck, fight, use your feet, don't bother punching, you won't make an impact with your human fists. Just hold them long enough to give Aximili time to morph, and then you can take a break, you can relax…

But they were too strong, and too many, and so I swiped a dracon beam from one of the dead bodies that lay around me and began shooting. Stray dracon beams came towards me, but I danced about, I moved too much for anyone to get a firm shot.

And when Aximili was done, I dropped to the floor and began morphing to Komodo dragon, ready and eager to tear flesh and to spill blood.

I didn't notice when Tom left with the morphing cube.

Or when Jake followed him.

I found out later that Cassie had stopped Jake from killing Tom when Tom had the morphing cube.

I didn't join with the others in attacking her for it, though, and I'm not sure why.

"But…" I started, directing my question towards Jake. "Why did you feel that you had to kill Tom to keep him from getting the morphing cube? Couldn't you have just knocked him out, and then maybe we could have brought him here."

Jake stared at me with wild eyes, eyes that spoke of the despair that I thought he had given up.

And then he ran.

I instinctively jumped up and ran after him, tackling him to the ground. He was morphing, I don't know what to, but I knew he was going to do something drastically stupid.

"Let me go," he demanded, but I didn't.

"I'm so stupid," Jake whispered after a moment.

"We all are," I told him.

"But I can't afford to be," he said.

"Neither can we."

"Jake," I said, after a pause. "It happened. _Deal._"

He relaxed, and so hesitantly I released him, ready to jump on him again if I needed to. He reversed the morph and then walked back with me to where the others were, frozen with indecision.

I looked over at Cassie, at her anguished face, and for a moment I knew that she, too, wanted a beating, that she, too, wanted pain to balance her guilt.

But at that moment I also knew that she had been utterly, utterly _right_ to allow Tom to take the morphing cube.

Nadar instinct.

The next day Aximili approached me as I washed my face.

(Maya…)-

"Yeah?"

(I wanted to thank you… for saving my life.)-

I looked up quickly.

(And I wanted to perform the Fight of the Forgiven with you.)-

_I stared at him, not knowing what he was doing, not knowing what I was doing._

_His eyes stared straight into mine, and his words echoed in my skull._

And I wanted to perform the Fight of the Forgiven with you…

My body accepted his request before my mind fully acknowledged it, and

_I began demorphing – no, morphing – to Elemaki, my tail splitting out behind me, full and beautiful._

_That's how it always starts. With a change._

_-(I did not trust you,)- he told me, and then he corrected himself. -(I did not _want _to trust you. For that, I ask for your forgiveness.)-_

_I began to tremble all over. Was this really happening?_

_He swung his tail up in a graceful arc, and I brought mine up, less gracefully, to meet his. Our blades clanged softly together, and for a moment we strained, looking each other in the eye, not letting our stalk eyes wander._

_His expression was something I had never seen before on the face of an Andalite._

_It was of respect, for an Elemaki._

_We both stepped backwards at the same time, and turned in a circle, our blades flashing as they missed each other by inches. How many times had I gone over this Fight of the Forgiven in my mind? How many times had I despaired, knowing that I would never perform it?_

And yet I was, I was performing it, with an Andalite, a _"vile, despicable, death-worthy" _Andalite.

An Andalite who asked me for my forgiveness, forgiveness that I had truly granted the moment that I ran to save him from his death.

_We continued to fight, our choreographed steps creating a beautiful, deadly dance._

_Whoever choreographed this fight must have been crazy, I thought. A fight of reconciliation between an Elemaki and an Andalite?_

_Whoever choreographed this fight must have been put to death._

Our tail blades flashed, our muscles strained, and we locked our blades more than once. He allowed me to place my blade next to his throat, and I allowed him the same.

And with one ritual, with one beautiful ceremony, one Andalite and one Elemaki became friends.

**Review Responses**

And The Summons is done! Look out next for **The Princess.**

And just because I thought you guys might be interested, here's a little outline that I wrote after I finished writing chapters one and two, for the rest of the fic:

_Chapter 3: Get back to valley, adopt kids away, start sniping, kill a little baby._

_Chapter 4: Anis find out, and don't make a fuss, find out it wasn't a Controller, make more of a fuss (but not enough), bring up themes of whether you kill innocents (like real innocents) in war and also Tobias/Helen scene_

_Chapter 5: Spills into book 50, write the auxiliaries, etc._

_Chapter 6: Have Cassie give the morphing cube to Tom, have Jake spill guts and try to kill himself b/c Maya suggests that he shouldn't have killed Tom but just knocked him out_

_Chapter 7: Forbidden Fight scene b/c… why? What makes Ax ask Maya to fight? Does she show him some weakness? Does she… Becky just said she saves his life. Duh. _

It didn't follow it all exactly, but hey, I think it worked out.

**Wraithlord**** - **:grins: Just for you. And it's good to hear from you, too. I'll need more of your help with this next fic, The Princess, because your character shows up in it. And boy, do I have grand plans for Jeremy. :grins again:

**DH** – DH, seriously, load on the constructive criticism. I can't improve without it. And I do know what you mean – I think the problem may have been the fact that I was cramming about six chapters from number 50 into a half chapter in my fic. I didn't want to go through all the dialogue and stuff, so I stuck to Maya's thoughts, which will obviously have consequences.

And oh yeah, in number 50 Tom captures all the Anis.

And about whether that's a general Nadar thing, that'll have to be answered by cheese. The whole Nadar issue will be resolved though, Maya herself included. Nadar will be defined fully, not by just a string of words, but an entire history, which is yet to come.

**Birdie – **Yeah, and as a foreshadow, Tom's going to be giving a lot worse than that pretty soon…

**FOL – **Hey, I checked out your story! Thought it was pretty good. And here's the update, was it soon enough? And Happy Easter to you, too.

**A-cat **– I thought people would enjoy Maya as a fairy. And yes, Maya is a bit of a hypocrite. :grins: She'll learn to see through her self-righteousness… eventually. Or her arrogance, more like it. And I have read A Wrinkle in Time, and that one line is something that has stuck with me forever. Alike is not the same as equal. So many people think that nowadays, you know? This whole emphasis on diversity, and freaking out because people are different… I just say get over it. I'm half-Korean, maybe you're not, but it doesn't really matter. We're humans.

I liked that scene too, actually. That's one theme I'll be bringing up again – how our culture pares us down to our bodies, especially women. Look around and you'll see tons of women who have been degraded just as sex objects, nothing more, and is that really any different from what Yeerks are doing? And the conversation was just an excuse for Maya to get closer to Tom to kill him more easily. And really? I didn't think that Tom was too old for her. I'm making the Anis sophomores right now, and Tom's a senior. But yes, glad you liked that quote.

Maya will come to terms with her hypocrisy, eventually, like I said earlier. And it is sad that Maya can't see through that, but she's got a long way to go. A _long _way to go. And a lot of it will come in the next two fics. And here's the update!

**Elwing**** - **:hides: Aw, I'm sorry. But here's a fast update, does that help:hugs: And I don't think you need to sign any forms, but whenever I use it my mom gives me her credit card number, since I don't have a credit card, so… I basically have to ask my parents.


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